Outside of those times, I'll be at Artists' Alley table GG-19 with Wayne Lo .

Yesterday at their Comic-Con panel, Marvel announced the second volume of Strange Tales , an anthology where indie comics creators are asked for their take on a Marvel character of their choice. When Marvel editor Jody LeHeup approached me for a story, the 12-year-old boy inside of me peed his pants.

I did a short little story about my absolute favorite Marvel character ever, The Fabulous Frog-man. Who is the Fabulous Frog-man, you ask? Why he's Eugene Patilio, the son of failed supervillian Leap Frog! After dear old dad retired from crime, Gene decided to use the Leap Frog's spring-loaded super-suit for good!

When I was in fifth grade, my friend Jeremy figured out that we could get our parents to drop us off at the library, sneak out of the library, walk about 20 minutes to a comic book store, buy comics, sneak back into the library, and then check out big books to hide our comics in so we could bring them home. On my first such outing, I bought Marvel Team-Up #131, featuring Spider-man and the Fabulous Frog-man. It was Frog-man's second adventure ever.

Jeremy and I actually got into a fight over that book. I found the only copy in the store, but he really wanted it because he had Marvel Team-Up #121, which had Frog-man's first adventure ever.

I can't believe Comic-Con is just over a week away. Man, summer goes by fast. I will be there from Friday afternoon through Sunday. My good buddy Wayne Lo has graciously offered to share his table with me, so we'll be at table GG-19 in Artist's Alley. I'll also be doing signings at both the First Second booth and the SLG Publishing booth. Here's the schedule:

Signing at First Second Books (Booth #1323)Saturday 7/24/2010 at 1:30pmDerek Kirk Kim will be there, too!

Oh yeah, I'll also be at the Eisner Awards on Friday night because The Eternal Smile, the book Derek and I did together, got nominated this year. The Eisners are the Academy Awards of comics, only you don't have to be some drug-addled starlet to attend. It's open to the public! If you've never gone, please do this year! You've gotta go at least once!

I found out this morning during my daily walk through the comics blogosphere. Harvey Pekar's been in the back of my mind all day.

When I was growing up, our local library had a small collection of American Splendors dutifully shelved in the 741's. I tried reading them more than once, but couldn't. Usually, comics drawn like this had at least a couple of panels my mom didn't want me to see, you know? This was just some working shmoe talking about his stupid, boring life.

I didn't develop an appreciation for Harvey Pekar until I was well into my adulthood. It's hard not to when you're a cartoonist. After all, every great autobio comic in the last twenty years finds its roots in him. And he was a part of the generation who spearheaded the merging of the comics market and the book market, a phenomenon that I've personally benefited tremendously from.

More than this, Pekar's comics contained a message that I simply wasn't ready for until I was his fellow working shmoe. Pekar found the art in the mundane. The small, forgettable triumphs and tragedies of the everyman's every day were recorded and offered up for contemplation. Pekar gave them a... a sacredness... by making them into images on paper. This might sound weird, but the animus behind his work reminds me of a certain Catholic mystic famous for finding the divine in the small things of ordinary life.

As someone who struggles with balancing comics, family, and a day job, I deeply admire how Pekar balanced comics, family, and a day job for decades upon decades. He was an artist, but he was also a family man who worried about putting bread on the table. He mixed the creative with the practical. And he made having a day job seem romantic-- I'm reluctant to give up my own day job in part because of his example.

So thank you, Harvey Pekar. I'm going to read one of your comics before I go to sleep tonight.

I just realized I never mentioned this workshop I'm doing this Sunday 7/11/10 at the Asian Art Museum in SF. I'll be going over making comics, from beginning to end. We'll be designing characters, writing plots, and drawing panels from 10:30am to 2:00pm. It costs $47 for non-members, $30 for members. Details here.